


The Melancholy of Fujioka Haruhi

by Lanerose



Category: Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-01
Updated: 2007-07-01
Packaged: 2018-06-05 17:50:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6714973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lanerose/pseuds/Lanerose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a day when Haruhi is even less festive than usual, all six Hosts try, each in their own way, to cheer her up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Melancholy of Fujioka Haruhi

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written as part of gen_challenge for colortheory.

"Ne, ne, Haru-chan~! Guess what?" Honey hugged his stuffed rabbit close to his chest as he stood beside the couch Haruhi was sitting on. After a moment, the brunette turned to him, blinking her brown eyes slowly.

"What, Honey-senpai?" she said, staring vacantly at him when her eyes finally focused once more. Honey frowned for a moment. Then he smiled, bouncing up and down on his heels.

"We're having strawberry shortcake today! Kyou-chan wanted us to wait until the guests got here, but I'm hungry~! He won't notice if we split a slice, right, Haru-chan?" Honey leaned closer, smile wide. "Right?"

"What? Oh… Right…" Haruhi got slowly to her feet, hands falling together in front of her. Honey looked up at her, pale brown eyes blinking as Haruhi stared clear over his head. "Please go ahead. Excuse me, senpai."

"HARU –" Honey began, but Mori swooped in and scooped him up, covering his mouth as Haruhi wandered aimlessly over to the windows. Honey struggled for a moment before going limp in Mori's arms. Mori loosened his grip on his cousin and released his hand from his mouth. Honey turned to look up at him. "Takeshi?"

The taller boy shook his head, and carried the blond to the far side of the pole where the other Host Club members had been hiding and watching the proceedings.

"Big Trouble! Even the cake plan didn't work." The twins whispered in unison as Honey and Mori passed the pillar. Hikaru and Kaoru turned simultaneously towards Tamaki. "Do you know what's got her so upset, my lord? If it's anything you did…" They slipped by him and popped up behind his shoulders, "We'll never forgive you."

"Wh – wh – WHAT?" Tamaki skittered away from them, spinning to face them and backing away until he had his back pushed against the pillar. "What makes you think I did something? I haven't seen her all day. In fact…" Tamaki drew himself up straighter and pointed an accusing finger at the twins, "confess what you have done to my precious daughter immediately and I might allow you to beg for her forgiveness!"

"Moron." They stuck their tongues out at him simultaneously. Hikaru continued, "Honestly, why would we bother asking what you did if we had played some kind of trick that upset her?"

"Although," Kaoru bit his lip and eyed Haruhi, "she has been acting weird all day. Maybe it's just coming out more now because she doesn't have class to distract her?"

"If my records are correct," light glinted off of Kyouya's glasses as he straightened them, "today is the anniversary of her mother's death."

"Poor Haru-chan..." Honey glanced at Mori, who nodded.

The hosts peered around the pillar. Haruhi stood by the window, her right hand pressed lightly against the glass. Her shoulders slumped forwards, and they could see in her reflection that her left hand rested against her chest, clenched in a small fist. Her deep brown eyes stared vacantly at the sky.

"Mommy!" Tamaki rounded on Kyouya. "Why didn't you tell Daddy about today? We could have planned private activities, or canceled them so that she could go and visit her mother's grave, or-"

"I assume," Kyouya interrupted, adjusting the clipboard in his hands, "that she, as most commoners, visits her mother's grave once a year at Obon. Moreover, her mother's grave is far enough away that she would not have come to school if she intended to go and visit. Perhaps she and Ranka will go this weekend. Besides, she – well, never mind."

"What was that, Kyouya-senpai?" The twins approached quickly.

"You wouldn't be trying to hide something from us, would you?" Hikaru asked.

"I'm sure it's important, if it's about Haruhi…" Kaoru added. Kyouya sighed.

"She came to school today." The other hosts stared at him blankly. After a moment, Kyouya shrugged. "She probably wants to keep busy."

"Kyouya…" Tamaki's eyes were soft as he looked at his dark haired friend. Kyouya turned, placing his back squarely towards the other hosts.

"Oh, and Tamaki," Kyouya paused without glancing back over his shoulders, "today probably isn't a good day to call her your daughter or any such thing. Unless you _want_ to upset her…"

"Kyouya…" Tamaki repeated, a small lifting the corners of his lips as moisture gathered at the corners of his eyes without even the assistance of eye drops. Tamaki shook himself, drawing himself upright. "All right!" He declared, his voice loud and ringing, "we hosts are going to do everything we can to make our princess happy again! Hikaru, Kaoru! I want you two to –" He looked around, unable to find the two redheads. "Hikaru? Kaoru?"

Honey and Mori pointed in the direction of the windows.

"- make commoners coffee?" Hikaru was leaning against the windows on Haruhi's right, with Kaoru on her left. At least, Tamaki thought that was where they were standing. Haruhi turned at the question, a surprised look on her face.  
  
"Sure," she said.

"HURRAY!" The twins cheered as Haruhi turned from the window and headed over to the table where they kept the club's supply of instant coffee. She grabbed the powder from a shelf and offered each of the twins a spoon.

"It's really not that hard," she said, gesturing with the two teacups she had pulled off the shelf before setting them upon the table. "Just put a teaspoon of the coffee mix in the cup, and then add water."

"OH~!" They exclaimed, grabbing the coffee, fighting with each other to be the person who got to take the lid off the container. Haruhi's eyes slid away from them, back towards the windows. The sky was a light shade of blue that day, only a single white, puffy cloud drifting slowly across it.

"-and now the hot water, right, Haruhi? Haruhi?" She turned back to Hikaru, who brandished his coffee cup at her, complete with coffee beans along the bottom. His eyes were a little narrowed at her as she looked up at him, so she forced a smile onto her face.

"Exactly!" She said, reaching for the pot of hot water that the serving staff of the high school (damn rich bastards) had brought up for the club activities. Before she could grab it, though, a hand covered hers.

"Don't." She followed the hand up the arm and to the face, and saw Kaoru looking back at her, his gold eyes looking worriedly down at her.

"Kaoru, we said –" Hikaru began. Kaoru cut him off with a look. Haruhi turned her head back and forth between the two before settling on the twin still holding her hand in his.

"Kaoru?" His eyes met hers intensely for a moment before he looked away.

"Don't lie to us," he said, letting go of her hand. She opened her mouth, but he continued, "Don't pretend to be happy if you're not. We're your friends. It's all right if you want to be sad sometimes."

Hikaru's hand landed on Haruhi's shoulder. She turned back to him, and he nodded sharply before looking away like his brother.

"You guys…" Her voice caught in her throat. She stopped, her left hand drawing involuntarily towards her chest as she glanced between the identical portraits of sadness. "I… Excuse me."

"Haruhi-!" They called after her as she took off running. Haruhi didn't know where she was going. Where was there to go, anyway, in this stupid rich kid school where everyone had a rich father and had never had to work for anything and their mothers all got together and did rich things with each other and with their kids and doted on their kids and –

It wasn't fair! She didn't have money, her family wasn't rich, but she didn't really mind that. Her mother hadn't been rich either, but she had worked hard, and become a lawyer, and was doing really well, and maybe someday Haruhi could have attended Ouran without being a special student if she hadn't – And why did her mother have to be the one who was - ? Why couldn't it have been someone else, someone who had a rich father and nannies and people to dote on them and look after them and not that her dad wasn't wonderful because he was but why did it have to be _her_ mother that died and - and -

Haruhi fell to her knees, weeping.

She would never know exactly how long she stayed there, bowed over on the grass beneath that too blue sky.

Eventually, though, she felt the hand on her back, rubbing in slow, soothing circles. From the corner of her eye, she could make out the boys' school uniform, and a pale hand with long, graceful fingers lying on the grass. And as if that slightly lifting of her head was all the encouragement he needed, she found herself being held in someone's arms as she continued crying.

"Here," Tamaki said, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and passing it to her as she leaned back at last. She wiped impatiently at her eyes with it.

"Haruhi~!" A voice called. She turned, and her honey brown eyes immediately caught sight of the twins leaning against the hedges to her right. They approached, and Kaoru offered her cup. "We brought you coffee."

"We made it ourselves," Hikaru added, head tilted proudly upwards. Haruhi took the cup from Kaoru, and took a sip.

"Bitter…" she murmured as she winced at the taste. The twins seemed to deflate a little at that, though, so she smiled and tilted her head to the side. "It'll be better next time."

"Ne, ne, Haru-chan~!" Honey appeared on her right with a plate of strawberries. "I was going to bring you some cake, but Takeshi thought you might like just the strawberries better, right Takeshi?"

"Aa." The taller boy, standing behind Honey, agreed. Haruhi took the offered plate and bit into one, allowing the sweet taste to erase the bitterness of the coffee from her palate.

"I guess it's a good thing I delayed Host Club activities for today after all," a voice said, and Haruhi turned to see Kyouya standing behind her, adjusting his glasses. "We still have a few minutes, so I guess it wouldn't hurt to stay here and relax a bit before we greet our guests."

"Kyouya-senpai…" Haruhi said softly. He wouldn't quite look at her, but she could tell he was stealing glances over his upturned nose every time the light glinted off his glasses. She smiled.

"Feeling better, Haruhi?" Tamaki asked, rising from the grass. He offered a hand to her, and she took it, rising to her feet.

"Yes," she said. "Let's get back before the guests arrive."

They couldn't bring her mother back for her, and they couldn't replace her mother… but maybe having them be there for her wasn't the worst thing in the world, after all.


End file.
